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Plan now to eliminate "power users" from your domains
I've seen some conversations lately about the Power Users group -- how powerful is it, really, and why did we remove the group from Windows Vista? That group had rights install software and drivers. And if you can install software and drivers, then you Read More...
Posted 11 February 08 10:03 by Steve Riley | 1 Comments   
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Who should do your security audits? Or, how do you organize the security department?
An interesting question came up today. The group responsible for configuring and maintaining the firewalls at a customer also believes that they should be the only ones to audit their configurations. Others in the security department are uneasy with this, Read More...
Posted 07 February 08 02:25 by Steve Riley | 4 Comments   
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What's your data worth? More importantly, to whom?
This week, I'm attending and spoke at a cybercrime conference in Singapore. One of the presenters made a very good point, and I want to share it with you. When considering how to protect your data, don't consider how valuable it might be to an attacker. Read More...
Posted 24 October 07 11:49 by Steve Riley | 5 Comments   
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More on the necessity of antivirus software
A few days ago, I wrote a brief post about my non-use of antivirus software on my own computers. A number of people have asked me privately if I am recommending such a stance to other individuals or to organizations. Let me be perfectly clear: absolutely Read More...
Posted 25 September 07 10:53 by Steve Riley | 11 Comments   
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Antivirus software -- who needs it?
In the newsgroups a few weeks ago, someone asked about which anti-virus software is best for experts. This is a really curious question. I've been involved in computer security -- as a practitioner, a consultant, and an instructor/speaker -- for several Read More...
Posted 22 September 07 09:14 by Steve Riley | 16 Comments   
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Password policies. Once again.
Recently in the newsgroups ( news:microsoft.public.security , to be specific) the question of password polices and the out-of-box defaults came up. The poster lamented a number of things: that Microsoft doesn't enable account lockout by default, that Read More...
Posted 04 September 07 03:14 by Steve Riley | 21 Comments   
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When you say goodbye to an employee
...what do you do with his or her account? Recently this question came up -- someone was asking for guidance on how to handle this very situation. And, as often happens, the question was more about process and policy than anything to do with the technical Read More...
Posted 31 May 07 11:29 by Steve Riley | 6 Comments   
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Enabling Secure Anywhere Access in a Connected World
A few times each year, Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer publish an executive memo. The first memo was Bill's essay on trustworthy computing , in July 2002. Today Bill has a new memo , one that is very important for all of us who strive to achieve a balance Read More...
Posted 06 February 07 12:47 by Steve Riley | 1 Comments   
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Why administrative passwords will never be like nuclear missile launchers
During the past few months many people have lamented that Windows lacks a nuclear missile style control option for administrator passwords. Surely you've read about or seen photographs of missile silos where two operators, separated by a distance greater Read More...
Posted 21 November 06 02:16 by Steve Riley | 11 Comments   
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Did you know that you ALREADY have an e-mail policy?
An email access policy can be expressed in one of two ways: E-mail is mission critical to our business. Therefore, we permit employees to read and compose e-mail from any location in the world where employees can access the Internet, using either company-issued Read More...
Posted 10 September 06 05:34 by Steve Riley | 7 Comments   
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Configure your router to block DOS attempts
Some time ago I had a discussion with a friend. He disagreed with my recommendations on how to configure a border router and the firewall behind it. I claimed that in the border router between you and your ISP, configure the six rules to block most denial Read More...
Posted 10 July 06 01:27 by Steve Riley | 12 Comments   
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Security myths and passwords
I like this a lot. http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/weblogs/spaf/general/post-30/ In the practice of security we have accumulated a number of “rules of thumb” that many people accept without careful consideration. Some of these get included in policies, and Read More...
Posted 30 April 06 09:07 by Steve Riley | 3 Comments   
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What do YOU need out of two-factor authentication?
Two-factor authentication continues to grow in popularity and emerge as a security requirement for many people I meet with. At Microsoft, we use smartcards internally for VPN access right now; soon we'll be requiring smartcards for domain logon, too. Read More...
Posted 20 April 06 03:37 by Steve Riley | 43 Comments   
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It's time to stop playing war games in the name of "security"
Really interesting article. Military mindset no longer applicable in our line of work http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/columnItem/0,294698,sid14_gci1171862,00.html My favorite bit: "Obviously, secrecy is important to business, as is the ability to Read More...
Posted 13 March 06 10:07 by Steve Riley | 4 Comments   
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Domain controller security: it starts at layer zero
Recently I seem to have had the same conversation over and over again, in places as far apart as Jakarta, Winnipeg, and Berlin. The question is usually worded like this: "What happens if someone steals one of my domain controllers?" There is, essentially, Read More...
Posted 10 March 06 01:15 by Steve Riley | 8 Comments   
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